The objectives of this proposal are: 1. The synthesis of diverse multi-chain host compounds of a type previously unknown to mankind and which are potentially interesting to biological and medicinal chemists. The host compounds include multi-armed aromatics as well as cyclodextrin-based derivatives. 2. The examination of these host compounds and their ability to perturb the physical-chemical properties (e.g. solubility, spectra, transport, reactivity, etc.) of biologically interesting molecules trapped inside the multi-chain network. 3. The attachment of catalytic groups onto the hosts thereby creating organic molecules which can both bind guests and promote their reactivity as occurs in enzyme-substrate systems. Preliminary results are extremely encouraging: (1) One of our new compounds can induce dramatic rheological changes of water at very low concentrations (4 x 10-3 M). (2) "Hexapus", a six-armed compound, solubilizes cholesterol in water. (3) A fully alkylated cyclodextrin dissolves in heptane and benzene and acts as an ionophore.